6.20.2009

final thoughts re: mariano EL

Aside from apocryphal vVdeo Days footage, Lockwood revisited, and Van Engelen's encapsulation what it must be like to watch the dude skate, the one revelation that devastated the most in the 10 episodes of Mariano Epicly Later'd was the fact that most of the "LA" dudes ended up with substance abuse issues --with varying degrees of severity.I'm not going to attempt to get into "why" here, but one time when I was at a party, a dude and I were discussing drinking as a passtime, and he said the following:"It helps fill spaces in time." Think about that--if one is a pro skater, unless one is on a Ty Evans filming trip, there is very little structure, unless one chooses to create it. What's the most one can skate in a day--three, four hours? Money combined with no structure, combined with an age at which one traditionally pushes the limits of acceptable behavior, substance-related and otherwise, can sometimes lead to individuals not making the best choices.

Ironically, I recall some Big Brother interview in the late Nineties in which they asked Guy about his personal finances. He replied that, basically, his mom was his accountant and she looked out for his interests in that respect. But, like Dave Eleffson said in the Megadeth BTM, "If you're spending $500 on coke and heroin, you're going to have money problems." That reminded me of what Bill Simmons refers to as "The Coke Era" of the NBA--approximately '78 to '84, when a whole bunch of talented dudes, like David Thompson and Micheal Ray Richardson, blew out their careers due to prolonged affairs with the White Lady.

The '84 draft pulled the league out of that malaise, but Stern, in his infinite wisdom, establised a rookie orientation program to proactively address these issues and help dudes who were getting drafted right out of high school develop tools to deal with suddenly having access to millions of dollars and a limitless supply of scandalous bitches and associated accoutrements.

The Rocco '92 to '95 era was skating's version of the aforementioned Era. Dudes got unprecedented salaries and fringe benefits, with little to no mentoring. It was almost as if Rocco conducted some kind of sociological experiment--what happens when one gives adolescents unprecedented amounts of money and impunity? I also discussed this policy in my review of The Man Who Souled the World, so I will not discuss further.

What I'm getting at here is another one of those "alternate universe" scenarios of which we are so fond around here. And it goes a little something like this:

One of the only comments of note on the VBS site lamented how Peralta "blew it" by not repping the LA dudes harder circa Public Domain.

Let's say Peralta breaks free from George Powell due to creative differences. He adopts a foward-thinking mindset, realizes that the Steve Saiz's of the world are driftwood in the imminent "street skating" tsunami, and sets up permanent shop in the LA office. Starts a new company with the L.A. dudes, plus Pat Fucking Brennan, Bertino possibly, so now you're looking at a proto-blind with Mariano, Johnson, Diaz, Rodriguez, Pat Fucking Brennan, possibly Bertino, also McNatt, perhaps. Sick, no? Maybe a talented young graphic designer by the name of Sean Cliver follows him on his way out the door. He also adopts more of a mentor role, like he did with the Animal Chin dudes.

Who knows how the 90's would have played out...

On the other hand, if one believes Disposable, the union of Rocco and Cliver was decreed by the fates--like one of those freeze-frame scenes in a Scorsese film.